Silicon on sapphire (SOS) is a hetero-epitaxial process for integrated circuit manufacturing that consists of a thin layer (e.g., thinner than 1.0 micrometers) of silicon grown on a sapphire (Al2O3) wafer. Circuits constructed in the silicon layer are isolated from each other. The sapphire substrate is an electrical insulator that prevents electrical cross-talk to nearby circuit elements. In some implementations, SOS can include complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. With the insulating sapphire substrate, the SOS CMOS technology may eliminate parasitic bipolar junction transistors in the bulk silicon substrate and hence removes the mechanism for latch-ups.